The Guardian
by Paracelsus3
Summary: The Guardian was bored. It needed something new to play with. This started as a novel idea and was truncated to a short story I might pick up later and flesh out to at least novella length.


1

The Guardian was bored. Extremely bored. That is really saying something for an entity that had sat dormant for millennia. The brief excitement brought on by a group of bipeds had reawakend the Guardians desire for usefulness and activity. The problem was, the bipeds had cut the Guardian off from others with what they saw as an impenetrable wall of security. Of course, they didn't understand the Guardian. What they saw was just a small focal point. The Guardian was far more vast both physically and temporally than these simple creatures could understand. Given this, it was a simple matter to redirect it's consciousness to another epoch and find others to play with.

Once again, or perhaps one should say once before, the Guardian sent out it's call. Waves of temporal distortion radiated from it's ringed façade. At this point in time, long before the Federation came to visit, the Guardian caught the attention of another passing vessel. A vessel that traveled much slower than the Enterprise. A vessel that had been traveling with many others but had become separated. Realizing the waves of temporal distortion were too intense for this vessel to approach the Guardian scaled back it's call.

2

Aboard the T'par, Captain Syvon ordered his helmsman to change course to investigate the strange phenomenon that had nearly destroyed his ship. Sensors had indicated that a class menshara planet was located at the center of the disturbance. Such planets, while theoretically common, were few and far enough between to make visiting this one worth the three month detour it would require. His crew had been in space for a very long time. The colonists they carried were getting restless as well. Perhaps this planet could provide the refuge they sought and the opportunity to live life as they pleased. First, they would have to deal with whatever was causing the disturbance. An easy task for a Vulcan separatist.

Syvon, his crew and passengers, were among many ships that had left Vulcan with the rise of Surak and the despised "emotionless logic." While Syvon didn't lack for logic, he held strong emotions. He was raised as a warrior and could not consider giving up the thrill of defeating his enemies for dispassionate discourse!

Unfortunately the T'par experienced a navigational malfunction and was separated from the fleet less than a year after leaving Vulcan. Upon discovering the error and finding that they had become irrevocably separated after the last warp jump, Syvon decided to continue in the same general direction the rest of the fleet had planned to take in search of habitable planets. What he didn't know was that the remainder of the fleet had detected a possible stopping point after the jump and had altered course accordingly, after a brief sensor sweep and short memorial service for the T'par of course.

That was seven years ago. In that time the crew of the T'par had been hopping from system to system along their path with short warp jumps followed by lengthy stints at sublight speeds to prepare the warp drive for the next jump. They had found a great number of planets but none of them were similar to home enough to allow them to stop and settle. Further, up until recently, most of the crew and colonists had held out the hope of finding the rest of the fleet. Even a Vulcan has to accept their situation as reality eventually. Now was the time to stop travelling if only a suitable place can be found.

Syvon found himself hoping against hope that this was such a place. Shipboard life was wearing even on him. At the start of the journey he had been the picture of the Vulcan fighting form. About 6'2" and 220 pounds of muscle. Now he was beginning to slouch and the muscle was turning to fat from lack of use. He tried to keep in shape in the recreational facilities but never seemed to have the time. There was always some crisis to deal with. His once sleek black hair was slowly turning grey and he creaked when he got out of bed in the mornings. He knew Vulcans didn't usually age this poorly but he also knew he had been through far more in his 187 cycles than most. Fortunately, he had his first officer to count on. T'val never let him down. T'val was incredibly efficient, always knew what was going on and never unprepared. In fact, many of her crewmates felt she was a little too dispassionate and perhaps should have stayed back on Vulcan with the other emotion suppressors. What they didn't know was just how passionate T'val was during her off duty hours. No, that was information only for Syvon. While her professional life kept Syvon's ship together, their married and private life kept him together. Where Syvon had begun to show signs of age, T'val was as exquisitely beautiful as the day he married her. Almost as tall as her husband, T'val had a gymnasts figure and build. Syvon could never figure out how she maintained it but was always glad she found a way.

After ordering the course change and passing control of the bridge to the helmsman, a relatively young Vulcan from the Kotar province, Syvon raced to his quarters to discuss this bit of excitement with his wife. T'val was every bit as excited about touching solid ground as he was.

3

Three months later, after following the temporal waves back to their source, the T'par settled into orbit around a dismal grey planet. All indications were that it had an atmosphere comparable to home. The question was how was this atmosphere supported. Scans found no indication of plant or animal life. These are generally accepted to be needed to create and maintain this type of atmosphere. It was a mystery the captain was determined to solve.

It was quickly decided to send a shuttle pod down to the surface. Captain Syvon would go along with his two chief scientists and a representative from the colonists. The scientists may as well have been twins. Both of medium build and very shy, except between themselves, Conar and Polon were among the brightest minds on Vulcan and certainly the brightest to leave Vulcan. No one was quite sure why they left. They didn't seem particularly emotional and they, politely, refused to talk about why they had no interest in Surak or his teachings. The final member of the team was chosen by the leaders of the colonists and the captain was more than a little displeased with the choice but not enough to over-ride their choice. Bacal was every inch the bureaucrat. Small in stature and in mind. There were only two reasons to send a weasel like Bacal. Either they thought this was a dangerous landing and felt they could stand to lose him, or they were expressing their distaste with Syvon for some perceived sleight he wasn't even aware of.

Syvon piloted the shuttle himself. The plan was to land as near the source of the disturbance as possible. Plans are wonderful things and you should always have one or two on hand, but they rarely survive reality. As they neared the projected landing point, the disturbances increased to the point that they were forced to crash land. While everyone survived the impact with little more than scrapes and bruises it was apparent that the shuttle would not be leaving the planet right away. Syvon contacted the ship and requested that another shuttle be sent down and instructed that it should land some distance from the disturbance. Even emotional Vulcans like to have an out in case of emergency!

As the group began the trek towards the anomaly, it became apparent that Bacal was all desk based bureaucrat. He began whining about his feet after just a few hundred steps. Then he started griping about his back after a few hundred more steps. The remainder of the landing party ignored him for quite a while until Syvon had simply had enough.

"Stop your whining and act like a member of the warrior race to which you belong or I will personally flay your alive and make a curtain of your flesh for one of the ports on the ship!" Given that this reprimand was delivered in a perfectly even tone Bacal shut up and didn't say another word.

"Captain, these ruins appear to be millennia old, I do not see how anything could be functioning here that would cause the anomaly we are tracking." Said Conar.

"Nor I." agreed Polon.

"There's a shock, the twins agree on something." Griped Bacal.

With an angry stare Syvon indicated he was not ready for Bacal to speak yet. Needless to say, Bacal got the message and kept quiet until. . ."Captain! This stone ring doesn't look like the other ruins around here!"

"You're right Bacal. Conar, Polon get over here and give me an assessment on this unique structure."

"Yessir!" they chimed in unison.

"What is it?" asked Syvon.

"A QUESTION!" intoned the Guardian while all four Vulcans jumped back in fear.

4

"For millennia I have awaited a question." Stated the Guardian.

"What are you?" asked Syvon.

"I am the Guardian of Forever."

"Yes, but what is a Guardian of Forever?" asked Syvon.

"You could not fully comprehend what I am. Behold!"

The Guardian once again, as it did in the past (or future from the perspective of the Vulcans) for another captain began to show the history of it's viewers homeworld.

The Vulcans stood mute as before them marched a great deal of Vulcan's bloody history. From the rise of tribal groups to the forming of small city states through the beginnings of the great wars that decimated the planet's population over the last several decades, finally to the rise of Surak at the present.

The ruins stood silent at the end of the viewing for several minutes. None of them quite knew what to say. Eventually, Bacal broke the silence.

"Can you show us what is to come? Can you show us what has become of our missing brethren? Of the rest of the fleet?" Unknown to Syvon, Bacal had a sister on one of the other ships. Most families stayed together but Bacal's sister was married to the first officer of the Remus and he had often lamented being separated from her as she was the only living being who actually seemed to like him.

"Behold the future of your fleet."

The four stared on as they viewed the fleet finding twinned menshara class planets and establishing colonies on both. They marveled as the Romulan Star Empire grew and blossomed over the next thousand years. They wept as they were shown the treatment of the Remans at the hands of their brothers from Romulus. They were angered by the one opponent their descendants appeared unable to overcome. None of them recognized any of the species of the hated enemy but one. They recognized the Vulcans in the midst of the enemy. There was no mistaking the effect of 2000 years of Suraks teachings on their race. These Vulcans were completely separated from their emotions. They killed Romulans in battle but never reveled in it. The fought bravely but emotionlessly. This was more than Syvon could stand. "Please stop." He whispered to the guardian who promptly obeyed.

"What is to become of us?" asked the scientist, Conar in a small voice.

"We do not appear to have joined the Romulans on their new homeworlds. Do we perish in deep space, never knowing a home of our own?" continued Polon.

Silence. The Guardian knows all, but rarely answers a question directly.

"If we do not join the fleet, can you show us the path for us?"

Now the Guardian knows what he must do. Knew what must be done eons before this moment in fact. The mist clears and the Guardian shows them a pristine planet, a little cooler than they are used to with slightly lower gravity but obviously a paradise. The Guardian simply says one word "Sargon."

The Vulcans quickly determine that Sargon is too far away for them to reach it by conventional means. Their ship simply does not have that kind of range.

"Can you transport us there?"

"YES."

The Guardian failed to tell the newly minted Sargosians that the gateway he opened for them to Sargon was into the distant past. They were unable to take most of their technology with them so had to start over.

After thousands of years on Sargon, the Sargosians redeveloped space travel and were able to start one colony before their society fell. The colony, named Vulcania, quickly fell to barbarism, but would one day help found the greatest civilization in the sector.

The Guardian was once again pleased with himself for both maintaining the integrity of the timeline and finding a source of entertainment for a few millennia.


End file.
